mmmmmbeeer

I don't think we can really evaluate Hahn's performance without knowing how much pull he/TLR actually have. Do I think Rick wanted to resign Leury? No. Do I think Rick wanted to spend his budget on the bullpen? No. Do I think Rick wants Sosa in the minors right now so we can watch Leury? No. There are just too many moves being made this season that clearly show that there's a COMPLETE disconnect between the FO and TLR, Sosa's short stint being example 1A. Tony loves a bullpen, thus the bullpen pieces. Tony loves Leury, thus the Leury signing. Tony pus handedness above all else, thus Gavin, Leury, and Reese taking starts away from guys like Pollock, Vaughn, and Harrison. All that said, if Hahn has truly been relegated to nothing more than a puppet GM, he should quit. The fact he remains implies he either has a direct hand in this decisions or he thinks he'll outlast TLR's reign.

Forget about that. Can we steal their interim?

Can we steal Minnesota's hitting coach? We have more (historical) power in our lineup but are embarrassingly behind the Twins in HR on the season.

He threw like 25 against LAA in the first and made it until the 7th.

I think it's as simple as him being too amped going into these starts. His last start against LAA was shaky, to say the least. He had to cover the bag (which he messed up) and, all of a sudden, sailed until his final batter. I think that run to cover first settled him down, got the blood flowing and caused him to breathe. Kind of like how some QBs need to get hit before they settle into a game.

I click on the box score after reading this, expecting us to be down a run or two in the top of the first. 2 outs. Nobody on. No runs scored.

He looked cooked early last season, too. Went on the IL, came back, and tore it up for the rest of the season when he was finally feeling healthy. When you've got bad legs or a bad back, catching up to fastballs becomes infinitely more difficult to do, which leads to guessing pitches instead of pitch recognition, which leads to a poorer eye, poorer contact, less power, and looking like a non-MLB hitter. Look at Yoan...while not producing at the level we'd like yet, his hacks look so much healthier now than before he went on the IL. I think Yaz is going to come back and be an impact bat. He's too good of a hitter with too good of an eye to just fall of a cliff the way he did. Seby gets sent packing.

Tim better face a clubhouse fine for that bullshit. Pot should be big tonight with Moncada and Engel chipping in, too.

This is where I'm at, and it sucks to feel this way. I don't even know if the losses will be enough to shit can the old man mid-season but the pressure to do so will be far more relentless, and national, than it is now. The worst part? The day Nightengale floated TLR as a possibility as our manager, something most of us just laughed at, I think we all knew it was not only possible but would ruin our competitive window. There was ZERO justification, from a baseball operations perspective, to bring that man out of retirement to manage a young, exciting core. None. One of the most astonishingly bad managerial moves I've seen ANY team make and, of course, it just had to be my team, the damned White Sox. I think the entire organization, from the players to the vendors to marketing to the accountants, are angry. The atmosphere in that clubhouse and in the halls and recesses of GRF cannot be anything but toxic. Toxically toxic. Even Steve Stone, as he admonishes the fan base, knows baseball too damn well to truly believe the BS he puts out publicly on Twitter. Or think of Len Casper, a guy who left the Cubs to come to the southside SOLELY to have the opportunity to announce a World Series on the radio. Wonder how he's feeling about TLR?

Honestly makes one wonder what about Cleveland made him such a power threat. Could even make one wonder how a lineup of mostly no-names is hitting so well this season. I mean, it doesn't make me wonder, but I'm sure lots of people are wondering.

I think if he stays on board they need to get someone else in as a hitting assistant to work with some of these guys. While dudes like Vaughn, Jose, Mendick, and Burger have shown marked improvement under his tutelage, you have guys like Eloy, Luis, and Yoan who look like complete crap. Eloy and Luis, especially, regressed considerably from their minor league performances (accounting for an expected dip stepping up to MLB). It seems these are the guys who need a different voice/approach that Frank just can't offer them.

I'll go former WS route and say he reminds me of Magglio, strictly hitting-wise. Decent pop, >.300 average through his prime, great bat to ball skills, and someone who will drive in a ton of runs in the middle of the order.

And neither Jason or Steve tried to talk over it...a good 10 seconds of all silence except for the chant.

WSD was in Indiana today interviewing Hawk. Considering Hawk and Tony's history, I would not be the least bit surprised if Hawk spilled several beans (off record).

With the rumor going around that there were high-level Sox folks watching Sosa this week down in BHam, coupled with the way he's hitting (with a .972 OPS against RHP), there definitely seems to be something in the works for shaking up the whole Mendick/Leury/Burger/Harrison situation beyond needing to make room for TA's return. Could be we see Sosa called up, Mendick, Burger, and Sheets sent down, and Harrison released. Leury would be put back into a true backup/utility role. Burger sticks if Yo needs an IL stint for the quad.

He looked very sharp today and I really wonder if it's because he's similar to Liam in that he needs to be used regularly.

Strongly disagree. As anyone who has had the misfortune to work under poor leadership will attest, you just go through the motions to earn your paycheck. There's little hope of success, each step forward leads to two steps back due to poor leadership decisions, there's absolutely no 'fun' being had, little camaraderie except to b**** and moan about how bad the leadership is, and the team leaders themselves begin to feel powerless (be it an office lead or, in Sox terms, guys like Abreu and TA). Management sets the tone for the entire team. It's often said how teams take on the personalities of their managers...does this look like a team being led by an 80yo incorrigible asshole? It sure does to me. These players KNOW baseball. If you and I can sit at home, with nothing but time invested in this franchise, and get pissed off at some of the unbelievably bad decisions being made with the lineup card, the bullpen, pinch hitting, etc., how do you think the actual players on the field are feeling about those decisions? They put in the effort but, time and again, their own manager changes Ws to Ls. Why even try? Why put in extra effort? Why put in the time and energy to be hyper-focused when they believe, truly believe, their manager will do something idiotic to render their efforts moot? Professionalism only goes so far....

I live out of town so perhaps they've been on the radio, but where the hell are these guys during all of this madness? Seems we haven't heard a peep when they really need to be out in front of things trying to calm the fanbase. Give us something, anything, that says you're aware of what's happening and plan to make moves to address issues. Answer a question regarding the FO's take on these horrific lineups, bullpen usage, and offense. Silence is just pissing us all off even more.

Jose, Pollock, and Harrison are really the only expiring (though we have team options on the latter two). Payroll increases next season thanks to a couple of guys. Our farm is empty. This was supposed to be the window. There are no do-overs or retools on the fly. We're locked in, contractually speaking, with the vast majority of this roster through next season.

I'm really starting to wonder if Tony's insistence on off-days is having an opposite reaction on player health given that these are all soft tissue injuries. My wholly uninformed take is muscles, ligaments, tendons, etc., benefit from usage...keeps them loose, prevents tightening, etc. Or, to take a step further out on the conspiracy plank, could it be these guys are constantly lollygagging in practice, the gym, team stretches, etc., and then shock their bodies by actually trying in games...Tony has made it abundantly clear that he puts a lot of faith in conserving health, which means they'd likely not hear a peep if they were caught lollygagging. I don't know. Something changed since 2020 and TLR is the biggest change that's occurred.

Have seen dudes literally in the grass and they don't call that.

That is only called in egregious cases....that was FAR from egregious and had nothing to do with the awful throw.

There HAS to be some movement toward a statistical mean with this offense. There are just too many players performing so far below their abilities and histories for the pendulum not to swing back our way on offense. I mean, you look at some of these stats Cuda is dropping on Twitter and we're not just talking worst of the last few years, or worst of the past 20 years....we're talking some of the worst stats EVER, across all of MLB. And we're only 5GB and a game below .500. With that in mind, I believe we'll make the playoffs. I don't think we'll do shit once we get there, but we'll make the playoffs. If we want to make any noise when we get in, we'll need to have a good bit of momentum heading into the postseason. I just don't trust TLR to maintain momentum to round out the season given his irrational belief in resting 20-30yo professional athletes so often.

I just don't see Menechino being the problem. These are Major League hitters....they don't need to be told to be more selective, they should know it. I refuse to believe he hasn't already highlighted the need to take more pitches to most of this roster. Not only is the whole team struggling to hit, they look lackadaisical and are making bad mistakes on the defensive side of the ball, too. Our performance on both O and D is a LaRussa problem, not a Menechino problem. They look like a team with zero sense of direction and lacking motivation. What's interesting is we don't see any indication that the clubhouse chemistry is bad between players. They seem to get along fine. I think they've just collectively decided to half-ass it as a performative protest of their owner sticking them with an 80yo manager. They tried giving it a chance last season and quickly realized that it's just not going to work....I think they absolutely know that their manager is costing them games. When you bust your ass only to know that the old fuck with the transition lenses will eventually make a decision to render your effort moot, what's the point?

Considering we were in a rebuild for most of those 9 years, he wasn't exactly tasked with making moves for impact players. My point was, whether you agree or not, this past offseason seems awfully reminiscent of a former GM who caught lightning in a bottle by signing a plethora of smaller pieces in a competitive window instead of going after impact players like Hahn did pre-rebuild.